NOTE: This post was the first written for my now defunct blog Glass Manifestations. I have since folded many of the Glass posts into my What Rhymes with Stanza blog.

Manifest —

3. verb (transitive) to show plainly; reveal or display

to prove; put beyond doubt or question

Creating stained glass panels is a very personal process for me. From the inspiration, to the design, selection of colors and textures, and then to the actual crafting of the piece. Sure, I like to sell my work and keep my cupboard stocked with food and my studio stocked with glass.

But what mostly matters to me is the process. The quest for ideas and inspiration and the way they “manifest” out of the seemingly mundane fabric of my simple life. The challenge of translating those ideas into a dynamic two-dimensional design. The sensory pleasure of looking at material options, feeling the heft of the sheets of glass, holding them up to the window to study the interplay of color and light, tracing my fingers (carefully!) across the surface to gauge how the texture will contribute to the overall design. And then the careful application of age old techniques to craft the materials into a final cohesive piece of art.

And finally, the moment of truth, when I lift the completed panel off the work table, move it to a window to let the sunlight filter through, step back and experience how my original inspiration has morphed into a tangible representation constructed with glass and lead.

I gain a lot of insight during the process of creating a panel, and again whenever I contemplate the finished piece.

Glass Manifestations [My original blog site was] about glass (sort of) because working with glass is how I do a lot of my processing (thoughts, feelings, ideas, inspirations…), and hence a lot of my thoughts, feelings and ideas are made manifest in my art. But it’s also about insight and growth, in the hope that what I manifest tomorrow, or next week or next year – in life as well as in glass – will continue to improve. In quality, in meaningfulness, and in pure, simple pleasure.